Tony Moravec
Two companies connected to local businessman Tony Moravec are requesting tax deductions on investments that total $7 million.
Columbus City Council will consider a joint tax abatement request from Moravec Realty LLC and Applied Laboratories, Inc at tonight’s meeting, which will be held at Columbus City Hall at 6 p.m.
According to a memo from Assistant Director of Community Development Robin Hilber, Moravec Realty, as the property owner, is requesting a real property tax abatement for a $4 million expansion at Applied Laboratories’ 1600 Brian Drive facility. Applied Laboratories is requesting a personal property tax abatement on a $3 million investment in new manufacturing equipment.
It’s estimated that the abatements will save the companies about $526,000 on real property taxes and $167,000 on personal property taxes over 10 years. During that same time, it’s calculated that about the companies will pay about $537,000 in taxes due to the facility expansion and $112,000 for the new equipment.
The companies’ investments will result in the retention of 149 full-time jobs and the addition of 10 new positions by the end of 2023, said Hilber. Per their incentive application, this includes eight jobs in production/manufacturing, one in maintenance and repair, and one in transport/material moving. The average hourly wage for these positions will be $18.54.
As stated in the abatement resolution, Applied Laboratories is planning a 45,000 square foot expansion onto the facility’s west side to “accommodate additional warehousing space.” Applied Laboratories stated in its application that this will make the facility’s total size 165,000 square feet.
“We underwent a facility expansion in 2018 and 2019 to support additional manufacturing operations, and 30,000 SF (square feet) of warehouse was converted into packaging and manufacturing space,” company officials wrote. “Due to our continued growth, we now need additional warehouse space to accommodate the raw materials and components to support our production.”
Additionally, the requested personal property abatement is for “filling and related packaging equipment to meet growing demand in the nasal saline market.” This equipment is related to the company’s bag-on-valve products.
